Sunday Single No. 8

I have run out of things to blame for how illogical, incompetent and unprofessional everyone in Egypt is – I was torn between whether it was the lack of rule of law or the primitive education system, but what causes those?

The root cause is cultural. For some inherent elemnts in the Arabic culture, Arabs despite of their brilliance and unique physical and intellectual features, suffer from a severe incapacity of organizing power and maintaning collective work. Thus they lost the political power to the less talented barabric ottomanians and before them Seljukes and Turcommen Turks which brought down the arabic civisation to the ground . When we started to regain our consciense in the 20th century by the action of Egyptian, Lebanese and Syrian reformists, and later on Iraqis, Oil had been discovered in the region- Which in turn made the region,which had already beeen doomed with critical geoploitical locus, fall under the constant pressure of the more mature west. For development in this region along independednt and autonmous lines will definetly turn the world order upside down . As the Arab world is the sole region that has been so far extremely resitant to the western cultural dominace, for reasons that are embeded in the thousands of years Arab culture of this ingenius regeon. Arabic civilsation despite of its miserable current state , is quite capable of putting forward an alternative to the western civilisation.In this context we could well see The revival of radical Islamism, in the light of its being a reaction to the fanatic theocratic Jewish state of Israel which has been dragging our energies down the drain for decades.The first step is to regain our consciense and integrate Aranbism into the praxis of our lives.Thus, a new spirit will resurrect. And we will witness an ethical renaissance. The Disfunctioning Egyptian institutions- whether schools, universities( including American one) Al-Azhar and the Church, internal affairs, political parties……….etc- are constructed over shacky cultural pillars with a very low threshhold of moral and ethical expectations from individuals. There is no way whatsoever we could expect those individuals to carry out serious reforms.

The primitive education system has produced world class surgeons and engineers who are currently healing non-egyptians and building award winning train stations in germany. Go to any major Britsh hospital and 9/10 you will find an Egyptian consultant holed up in the operating room. The problem is that after going through the primitive education system, egyptians have primitive work opportunities. A grad. doc. gets 80/month; people aren’t promoted because of the wasta system and other retarded elements, so people fly away leaving Egypt to drown in retardedness.not quite the real answer, but good questions though

What “I said” said is to a great extent right about the last 2+)decades. Unfortunately, recently the term “education system” is the wrong term. There are a lot more foreign schools, colleges and universities yes, but the system as a whole is a lot weaker. Just an example what do you think of this bizare grading system ” 95% won’t get you accepted in your desired school!! 105% may be?!.” And I know several example of such so called “gifted!!” students who travelled abroad with their family fail first year at American universities(!!) What this means is the system and the yardsticks benchmarking students are totally screwed.

There always seems to be an outside enemy to blame the current situation on. Colonialism/imperialism is a typical one. There seems to be a lot of energy spent dealing with the outside world. And maybe there’s a certain fatalism involved. But, as an outsider, I have no real idea and would be presumptuous to try and answer that.

haroon,you think it’s Israel which is dragging us down, not the revival of radical islam?? i don’t think islam has anything to do with my complaints – except for perhaps the ease with which people can throw their apathy and incompetence on God with a simple “insha2allah”. i am not qualified to discuss any of ther other arab nations, since i haven’t been to any of them except kuwait and dubai – and you can be damn sure that there everything is done right.i agree with basil, also.I – sure the employment opportunities are poor, leading to brain drain, but all of the egyptians who excel abroad went on to study and live in places where a higher standard of performance was expected of them – unlike here. people here are content to accept shoddy work and poor service and generally unprofessional behaviour, and those who do it don’t care because they earn so little money anyway it’s not worth their while to offer competitive service. it’s a cycle, really. the educations syste really is fucked, of course: high school even more importantly than university. there is no emphasis on personal innovation, critical analysis, research, and the basics of logic (which is what tortures me more than anything else – egyptians simply don;t recognize a logical fallacy UTTERLY). this all started because for months i have been locked in battle with the makwagy, who outright REFUSES to properly iron collars and sleeves. the collars are all floppy and criunkly, and there are no creases down the sleaves. i have entreated, threatened, and bribed. to no avail .the guy who actually brings me the shirts gives me a sullen look of non-comprehension when i try to explain what i want. then he tells me he told him…which is probably lying. other places in the world, once you’ve conveyed your instructions once, they are complied with afterwards. here, nobody gives a fucking shit. obviously this is the LEAST of the ridiculous incidents that plague a person’s day here.

(which is what tortures me more than anything else – egyptians simply don;t recognize a logical fallacy UTTERLY). That turned my life in Egypt into a constant nightmare. Whenever I see an Egyptian argueing, I get to feel like cutting off my head to eat it, leaving alone the traumas their logic inflict on my testicles. I wouldn’t be utterly exaggerating when I Claim that Egyptian logic sexually excites me. Radical Islam is a symptom of illness, but it is not the cause. I am blaming Israel for the rise of the radical backword islamism. At an ultimate level islamism is form of cultural resistance. Muslims are hypocrytical as the mainstream interpretation of islam is reactionary and satire. Why have a consciense and do my work well ? while I can simply go to haj afterwards. The makwagy no matter how hard he works will always remain a piece of shit, he envies you like hell. His self respect is not deriven from doing his job well and that is the fault of rotten crappy hypocryical IILOGICAL Muslim and coptic values which reinforce this unatural power heirarchies. In a society like ours where a structurally corrupt ruling elitte is dominant, and where a medivaal Jurassic religous insitution either sutains the the corrupt sytem because they are part of it, or what is worse, when they revolt, they pleasure us with ibn Taymeya and the hypocrytical coptic rhetoric of good copts keeping their faith in the face of muslim barabrism Once Arabs learn th values of collective work and cooperation, and once they reattain their lost self confidence, reform will come out. You seee I am not blaming externa powers who are seeking their interests in a darwinistic world. It is our fault we are not up to the challenge, so far. They never give us a chance to rise, whenevr we try, they hit us,- think of Mohmed Ali, Nasser and Saddam.And I Can’t separate the Egyptian problem out of the Arab context. It is the Arab unconsciousness and apathetic attidude towards their destiny- Arabism, that is hindering the interation of the collective Arab experiences and accumulated knoldge sets to come out with innovative solutions to handle the pressure. Pharoahs, Baylonyans, Phoenecians and later on their integral sum- Arabs lived in a world where they interacted, integrated and exchanged knowledge and experiences, thus they created indeginous innovative civisations totally adoted to their environment. Dubai is not even moving along the Souless concrete Taiwanisation lines. Instead, it is simply cutting and pasting. Still, hat is way better than the fucked up nooooooon sense we are witnesssing in Egypt and the levant.Kuwait is country of several thousands floating over barrels of oil. Anything will work there:)Egyptians, especialy the educated and rich ones have a responsbility, they must trouble themselves with th problems of their poor thir world country. They must rid themselves their parochial outlook. If they dont, than we deserve whatever is happening to us, there is no hope. And we must n’t compalin because that is it, we are failed culture of a third world.

Well, I think the biggest problem here is that the vast majority of us Egyptians don’t have the sense of doing something right because it’s the right thing to do. Without a slavemaster constantly looking over our shoulder and wielding a whip, many of us simply won’t get anything done. If we can’t see an immediate gain right in front of our noses, we simply don’t bother with it unless we have someone pushing us. True, to a certain extent this is present in all areas of the world, but here it seems to permeate everything, from our driving styles and habits, to how we cross the road, to littering in the streets.Essentially, many of us are selfish and looking for ways in which to “outsmart” those dictating our lives, whether it’s the government or the boss. Again, the fact that our government andf the whole class system is so corrupt and inefficient doesn’t exactly help mattrers either. My Dad said it best yesterday (when driving): the problem with most Egyptians is that they all think that they are smarter than everyone else. We are a nation that thrives on fahlawa.Of course, the way the education system is set up (focus on grades and not learning, no teaching of responsibility and cause and consequence, and teachers so pumped up on propaganda that their underpants are coloured red, white and black) plays no small part as well.Finally, I think that for most Egyptians there is a complete denial of “the other”. What I mean by this is that anything seen as different is seen as wrong, not different. Many Egyptians can’t accept things that are different, partly because we simply haven’t been introduced to it, and partly because for so long we have had it hammered into us that we are right and better that when we see something that is not the same as us, we immediately see it as inferior. I’m not talking about views of the economy or official statements, I mean a deep-rooted belief in our own social and cultural superiority that turns many Egyptians into slight snobs.As for implementing Arabism into our lives, well shit I’m not even sure what that means. If it means implementing global systems that have been working elsewhere here and twisting them around our culture – well shit, I’m not even sure what “our” culture is. Personally, I think that I have more in common with “Western” modes of thought and cultural norms than I do with those from the Gulf. What’s more, I want it that way.Meh, I could rant on like this for hours.

Rest assured that the culture of “lick and stick” service is not limited to Egypt. It is alive and well here in Lebanon too.No one here has bothered to learn the lesson that although you can shear a sheep many times, you can only skin him once.I have some theories as to why this is: one of which is the lack of public space in addition to a clan mentality. There’s also an unhealthy dose of wanting to outsmart other people. You can talk a Lebanese person into almost anything so long as he feels like doing so will screw someone else over. Even if he’s not profiting himself, there’s a certain pleasure taken from knowing that someone, somewhere is getting fucked.

snoby, i think the ways of learning are different. I don’t think that failing an american uni exam makes you stupid. Why is their system better than ours? The fact that egypt educated egyptians can excel outside their country but not in their country is a sign that the education system is not all bad. I do agree that all the foreign universities and schools are a load of crud but they are foreign not egyptian.Yes highschools are not particularly good at encouraging critical analysis but again there are plenty of egyptians out there excelling, with a *state* education in Egypt. You’re complaining that nothing in egypt is done properly. You guys pay PEANUTS and you complain. Yes the standard of service abroad may be better but you pay through your friggin nose. I can’t afford to get my shirts ironed where i live coz it would cost me nearly a quarter of my salary. You guys have luxuries that only the excessively rich can afford abroad. Those people get a pittance. I am very sure if you paid him more than the pittance these people usually charge, you will get the service you require.

i myself have the greatest faith in the foreign systems of education…every day i see the difference between those educated in foreign schools and those who aren’t, and it’s pretty stark. their system is better than ours because of well-established principles of education that i and several commentators have stated above. especialyl when you consider the overcrowded schools and universities, the underpaid instructors, the books filled with propaganda, and the insanely high illiteracy rate. and like i said, those who excel abroad do so only because they are held to a higher standard, as well as have the benefit of the foreign grad schools and fellowships…i would be happy to pay for good service, if u read my various comments. i have certainly offered to. but since most other people don’t, no wonder there’s no incentive. but as i stated before that you may not have read, it’s a cycle.

I chose not to comment on the issue of standards because it’s a massive issue. I personally don’t think that that is the main reason why egyptians are successful abroad. At the end of the day, those people who work to those standards have to rely on their primitive education to do so. Back full circle?You’ve told your makwagi, you will pay him more to do as you want and he has refused?

My makwagi never has change, or claims he doesn’t, and the last time I picked up clothes, he shrunk my linen pants. I gave him the remaining change from my bill, because he didn’t have enough change (and didn’t or wouldn’t understand the concept of credit) and I went home only to find that my pants are giving me wedgies now. He is no longer my makwagi. I am a teacher in a university here. Abilities levels are about as diverse as humanity. Most come from Egyptian schools, a sprinkling from other Arab countries.For the record, I am not Egyptian.Interesting discussion…Signed,another foreign teacher in Cairo.

These are just my thoughts, they may be wrong.When people (not people here, I mean generally) talk about Western political systems and societies, they imply that it is something that happened overnight, like one day every one woke up and they weren’t feudal serfs anymore, but citizens with voting rights. Not true. For every single right we in the West enjoy came from centuries of fighting for them and people often died in the process. We also had not one but two world wars, which speeded up the introduction of women into the working place due to slaughter of a large number of the working population. Public health schemes were introduced, largely to ensured the population was fit to participate in aforementioned battles. Colonialism in Egypt and elsewhere has stunted the processes of industrialisation and the unionisation of the work force which did so much to improve life for westerners.So I think, short of mass societal changes, which will require major public participation, nothing will improve.As for Islam (I cannot speak about Coptic Christianity due to lack of knowledge), once Muslims used their faith as encouragement to strive for better things, hence the great achievements of the Islamic empire.Now people either use it as an exucuse to put up with or behave like crap, or worse still sit around agitating for some revolutionary fairy tale which will never happen, or be horrendous if it did occur. P.S It’s not Israel’s fault either.

My simple analysis of the root cause of failure in public educations in Egypt is simply how the country (actually the system) treat Teachers. They pay them peanuts salaries and expect them to perform. Consequently, they opt for providing nothing at schools and aim for private teaching.. Consequently, they need to maitain their clients happy through usage of stupid grading system. On the other side of the coin who in Egypt can afford to pay for such riduculous amount of money??mmm Moey laundrers /corrupt parents who don’t have time to care for their kids. The country should establish a fair solid taxation system to force those types into paying and then they will have budget for education. Assuming they gave it the highest priority it desreves. And yes stop this rediculous grading system of 105% and the likes. Sorry, if I gave you a headeach but I think education is the number one issue in any society.

Sounds like you just have a bad makwagi – scope around the alleys near where you live till you find a better one. I’m surprised, actually, because makwa is the one area where I think Egyptians surpass most other nationalities at similar development levels. As for the other arguments about general failures of education, competence, etc etc, if it’s any comfort these are problems that ALL countries face at some point and probably have very little to do with “culture” or religion – though if I had a dime for every time someone tried to seek a broad brush answer to such problems in culture or religion, I’d be sitting on enough change for a year of makwa.

my knowledge of anthroplogy is rudimentary, but i believe that most collectivist cultures are to be found in developing parts of the world, while most individualistic cultures are to be found in developed parts of the world. the question is, of course, which caused the other – and why have collectivist cultures experienced periods in their history of great development? and what about japan?on the more personal level of analysis, i can see that money can act as both an incentive and deterrent in influencing people’s professional behaviour, and if it doesn’t really make a difference financially they’re not about to step up.

Corruption and an absence of social justice. It makes people believe the only way to get ahead (or simply break even) is to cheat.I think the US system of government (which is far from perfect, but at least strives towards an ideal) was described as: designed by geniuses so morons can use it.Finally, negativity, discouraging individuality and a messianic adherence to tradition. Favoring tradition over critical thinking is a death knell for any society.

Obviously every culture has its impediments and imperfections, but the rejection of progress and new thinking is what holds people of all countries back. Look at it from the business perspective… It’s the innovator, the daring one who makes the big bucks and gets the world’s recognition. The one who clings to the old ways may have pride, but will be left in the dust.But the world isn’t black and white, and it’s okay for people to struggle to maintain a balance between the old ways and the new. No one said it would be easy (look at the UAE), but it’ sure worth a try.

aspirations to statehood. you either have a state or you don’t. halfway is hell. in the end, it’s all part of ‘the fall’, i think. there’s no separating the culture from the politics… basil. people are yes responsible for their actions regardless of context. but still i think there are systemic and historical roots to certain kinds of behavior (like corruption). fun question: what has remained the same for thousands of years here?forsooth. 3ammatan if you ask me i’d say just flow and don’t worry about the big picture. the absence of ‘rule of law and good education’ can help make a crap society, yes, but the whole thing’s still contingent on a whole bunch of other stuff (nationhood, social contract, the ruler’s vision for progress, etc.). like i said, ana shakhseyyan i find a lot of clarity and peace of mind in just flowing and taking these constructs (ta3leem, qanoon, dawla) with a grain of salt. by flow i also mean to ‘engage’ by the way, to not let things go. to find another makwagi and celebrate makwagi’s who do their job right or do your collars on your own. but that’s just me. and i’m happy and productive. often enough. and popular.

thank you, gayyash, but it’s not my habit to indulge in hippiesh apathy in the name of popularity.i also think that nationhood – whatever that is – is not a particularly helpful tool of analysis. social contract? the ruler’s vision? i suppose in layman’s terms you mean that if people had choices and democracy everything would pick up. don’t think so. and also, countries have beaten corruption before – corruption goes down when there’s enough money to go around, and when there is a legal system that adequately punishes it – which means that someone important enough, or enough of them, have to have a stake in there being transparency. which i think could lead us back to democracy…it’s all interlinked, but i really do think rule of law and education would spur such changes.

the reason for nearly every problem in egypt is: the lack of rule of law- wpot on.every problem in egypt stems directly from that. The reasons as to why, i will stay well away from discussing in a public forum because i’d like to live past my youth and preferably not in a dingy dark cell with suspect toilet facilities.

Lack of social responsibility, then. Stems from corruption eroding the people’s trust, lack of education and a fatalistic ennui which stands in the way of people having the desire to better their life.

“but I really do think rule of law and education would spur such changes”Surely that helps, yet, still, by insisting on restrcting the scope of the problem to that level, I am afraid nothing will come out; because we will remain stuck ín the viscous cycles you have mentioned.What counts is how much power natioanl cultures can conjure up to create change. The first step on the way out, is the ability of of the national consciousness to well define its problems in the context of its external environment.In India there is a progressive elite with concerns about Indian welfre and progress, they have a system of governance which is labeled very democratic in western language! and they have a westernised educational system. However, Egypt scores way higher than India in measures like GDP per capita, level of poverty,illiteracy rates, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE as well as religous freedoms.On the other hand hand, Saddam’s Iraq wich was labled opressive and undemocratic by the hypocrytical sub-consciously anti Arab west was close to western European stanards in terms of women rights, acess to education, technological maturity, middle class expansion, educational and health care quality, secularism, national cognition, indivdual well being.So, The post modern Franco-Germanic totem so called democracy is certainlöy not the solutionWhat is the difference?They defined themselves very well and understood who they are and why they are, and why the more powerful west has been able to win the match for the past 400 years, despite of the fact that 75% of what makes up human exitance is Arabic, and that it is us who has been leading the world for the entire history of humanity except for the last 400 years.Once we have, regained our national cognition and become aware of how much 3 dimensionally crystalised our natinal identity is, we will be able to set our priorities straight and, hence set out on a suitable concrete track. There, the level of ambition must suit us as Arabs. We are not Indian Fakiers to be satisfied with a snake and a basket, we are more briliant than the chinese and with culuture that has had a more tangible influence on the human march. We must be at the forefront of this world. Arabic must become the lingua Franca in this world. From here we take off.You have broken loose off the circle when you mentioned Japan.In Japan they have a very strong national cognition. They have a healthy isolation that sheltered them against the western colonial viruses which infected the Arabs. In the mean time, they had an opening to regualte the inflow of oxygen, called China. And It was them who decided what and how to learn from the west. It is worth mentiong here that the philosophy and methodologies of Japanese educationl system is very similar to the Egyptian and Arabic ones in many aspects, with a tremendous difference in operational quality, of course:)

A person can naturally be a great achiever if he/she was rightly educated, has loving parents, has the finincial and the emotional support system that he/she can fall to. But if things start degenetrating, with absolutely no rights whatsoever, be it social, sexual, and political, and nothing to fall back to but pain, what do you expect. You will have a lot of pain-trodden individuals, who would DO their best to carry on with their jobs and life but the inside is not helping and not letting them reach their optimal CONSCIOUSNESS. This can cause not having great listening skills, they might feel self-victimized and wont treat you professionaly also they have impressions to make, so a lot of psycology stuff happening. And a good point comparing us to Japs and Koreans, their work ethics are behind hteir success stories, but can we plz compare the support system availabe there to the one here. Even if the westerners are individualistics, they still have the support system among such individualism, you just gota know the way on how to be accepted and to have ur group. For me as an Arab everything was suffocating, it effected everything in me, but I am getting back to who i am, bcz again, just recently i had the support system of a loving uncle. p.s. on the side—–The Korean friends I had taught me things that No Arab or Westerner can teach, it is the support system that makes them great! And they are sensitive people!

Let’s not forget the elitism of us sitting here judging a country that may just not have had its chance to shine. I mean, Europe had the dark ages and their only consolation was that there were no bloggers around to remind them about it, every day.I think countries, like people, have to hit rock bottom first before they realize something needs to be done.

A cautionary note about foreign schooling, forsoothsayer, if by that you mean foreign schools based in the Arab world. These may provide Arab children, particuarly high achievers with educated parents, with a damned good education not to mention, and possibly if they’re lucky, a taste of the values of hard work, discipline, and a degree of critical thinking, but a decent grasp of the Arabic language? I think not. That’s not to say that the standard of Arabic language teaching hasn’t spiralled downward in government schools throughout Egypt as well. Whereas in the past, the kuttabs ensured a high standard of Arabic teaching and learning, today’s government schools churn out kids with broken fusha and strangely contorted ammiya.I’d be interested to know where all those amazing AlJazeera correspondents learned their Arabic – doubtless throughout the Arab world. I know for a fact that some of them went to government schools in Kuwait, for example.But back to foreign schools: most of them distance Arab kids (tragically) from their heritage and history and teach awful Arabic. If you can find a foreign school that doesn’t do that, then we may be onto something.

i actually went to just one such foreign school in the Arab world, as did nearly everyone i know. i don’t know if you’d rate my grasp of the Arabic language as decent, and certainly there are a lot of similar TCKs with worse Arabic than i, but i don’t really feel the lack of it in my life. i know enough arabic to do my job, i don’t need to be eloquent – and very few lawyers i know really are. what needs to happen is that less reliance should be placed on fus7a as the language of formal communication – who the hell can learn two languages at that level of skill! certainly not anyone at seriously underfunded government schools. 3ammiya needs to take more of a role, in my opinion, although of course fus7a will always be important for international communication with other Arab nations. as for the heritage and history, you can learn about it in university 🙂

It would be really difficult to expand the role of ammiya because it doesn’t have proper rules of grammar and diction and is therefore difficult to pin down as a written language. Saying fusha should take a back seat is a bit like English people saying they’d love to learn a bit of French or Spanish or Gaelic, but why bother. I think it’s fusha that should be used more and more but adapted more rigorously to the 21st century and wider Arab world (not just Egypt). When I see foreigners (American, Europeans, etc) struggling, really struggling to learn this beautiful but difficult language I realize how much renovation in the language is needed, but also what a crime it is to rob Arab children of the ability to grasp and write it. And at the risk of sounding even more like a fusty old school marm, I have to admit I’m shocked to hear that lawyers here aren’t particularly eloquent or concerned with the finer points of the language they communicatre in! As to heritage and history, aren’t they intimately bound up with language too?

Please note that I don’t know anything about Egypt other than reading some blogs…but I want to make a general comment on haroon’s perspective. I’ll do a short summary at the start because the post grew somewhat lengthy.To summarize: Many people in the world, not withstanding the West, ARE pursuing a thinking of Nationalism/Regionalism (the Arab Region, in your case). Still, I think it is a trait to be diminished, not furthered, if the human race is to advance towards a better life. Cooperation and mutual understanding is my solution instead.The lengthy post: It is true that Nationalism (or, in your case, Arab Regionalism) CAN be ONE factor contributing to great achievements…as for example in the British Empire, in certain areas in the USA today, or in the Third Reich of the National Socialists (I come from that area). Which leads me to the other sides of Nationalism/Regionalism – most often growing hostility against “outsiders” (the rest of the world), and also the risk of dictatorship in the name of Nationalism/Regionalism (un-Arabic acitivities etc). This might be fine as long as it only leads to soccer hooligans trashing each other in front of stadiums. But it seldom stops there, and your comments about “we must be at the forefront of the world” or “the West has won the match so far” give a good example of that. That IS Social Darwinism on a great scale.Which is also what a large part of people in the West are pursuing today. But I am absolutely against furthering such thinking, either in the West or in any other region, for the simple reason that I believe such a thing on a global scale will consequently either end in a REAL World War (or continous small-scale conflict), or at the least create a world where we won’t get any rest from doing anything for fear that “The Others” will gain advantage in the meantime…in many areas, such as Education, Science, Military, Productivity etc (and note that Global Capitalism is already showing some of those effects really nicely, although with other motivations…and no, I’m not a fan of unregulated Global Capitalism either). An example for that would be the Cold War.So, my answer to the international relations to be desired would be (somewhat oldfashioned) mutual understanding and cooperation not only on a regional, but on a global scale. There are SOME hopeful developments in that direction…UNO (although frustratingly powerless), development aid (although often not very altruistic), or just ordinary people forming groups with the aim of communicating with and helping people in far-off regions of the world.And if anyone has read this far, I would be really astonished.

It is amazing how many people are looking for solutions in a framework that has proven will not work for an arab society. The real solution has been in our hands for many many years but we have been looking outside of it. Allah prescribed the remedy and we are still looking for human beings to tell us what the remedy is. The Quran and the Sunnah are the remedy. Didn’t Allah give the prescription of what it would take to be the best ummah as we were meant to be. We are the best Ummah as long as we do Amr Bel Maaroof, Nahi an El Monker and Believe in Allah. It is very disappointing that no one on this thread had mentioned any of this. Nationalism will not be a solution and was never successful because the bond that Allah prescribed is Islam which made equal all Muslims before the law of Allah. It is amazing to see someone suggesting teaching the Ammaya arabic and not the Fus7a because it is hard. Is this really a solution? And for those who see Islam as a collection of backward ideas that will not work, I say, fear Allah and think about what you say and convince yourself of or make others convince you of — becuase that argument will not work on the day of Altaghabon and the day of Altanad when you call on others and say they told me this and taught me that. Go back and read the Quran and learn the Sunnah, and if you will find a fully detailed prescription of how to achieve success (which Allah reminds us of success in the Athan five times every day — Al Falah). You just chose to find success and happiness in some philosphical arguments that have proven for many years not to do anything but to add to our misery and our problems. This is all becuase we accepted for ourselves something other than the deen of Allah.